1. Technical Field
The invention disclosed broadly relates to data processing methods and more particularly relates to improvements in electronic publishing.
2. Background Art
Modern word processing and text editing programs employ structured document architecture to provide greater control and flexibility in the displayed and printed appearance of documents prepared with the programs. Structured document architecture is described, for example, in the copending U. S. patent application Ser. No. 344,332, filed Apr. 26, 1989, entitled "A Method for Manipulating Elements Within a Structured Document Using Active Intent Interpretation," by C. J. Bennett, et al., assigned to the IBM Corporation and incorporated herein by reference. A structured document can be prepared in accordance with the standardized general markup language, such as is described in the International Standard's Organization Standard 8879-1986. A data stream of text marked up in accordance with the standardized general markup language, will have its text divided into elements consisting of a begin tag and its content and terminated by an end tag, when necessary. Within a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, text is displayed to the user as it will appear when it is printed, even though its structure is defined by the begin tags and end tags for each element of text. Formatting of the elements within a structured document is done when the document is displayed to the user. Those elements which fall into the category of commonly used elements include paragraphs, simple lists, ordered lists, bulleted lists, and list items.
Large documents marked up with structured document architecture tags, can be manipulated as an electronic book, by the method described in the copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 317,248, filed Feb. 20, 1989, now abandoned, entitled "A Method for Displaying On-Line Information," by E. Cassorla, et al., assigned to the IBM Corporation and incorporated herein by reference. The Cassorla, et al. patent application describes a method for creating on-line information from the same marked up source material used to create printed information such as a word processor or a markup language source used with a text formatter. A book data stream is provided, in an intermediate format for storing on-line information, specifically designed to be used by a book display program. The data stream captures and preserves structural information about the books, by using the structured document tags. The method is suited to display on-line books in a useable manner on a variety of display devices. A book display program manipulates the book data stream and allows users to interact with the on-line information. The electronic book may be used like a hard copy book, except that it is displayed on a display screen. The method allows readers to treat on-line books as if they were hard copy books, and uses the book data stream as its input.
When a structured document electronic book is in its draft form, it can be reviewed by several reviewers who may wish to make comments or suggest additions or deletions to the draft.